Expedition Update

We reported in this space last April about two major expeditions involving Dartmouth graduates and undergraduates that would be undertaken during the spring and summer months. One of these, it turned out, was delayed because of a touchy political situation in southern Asia. The other came to a successful conclusion.

The American Himalayan Kayak Descent of the Raidak River in Bhutan, originally scheduled to begin in April, was blocked from entering the country at the last minute. At present, it has not been determined whether the expedition of nine members, including Wickliffe Walker '68, Eric Evans '72, and Jonathan Knight '67, will be approved for next spring by the Bhutanese government. The expedition is supported by the National Geographic Society and a number of other organizations.

Bhutan, a remote third-world country in the Himalayas, admitted Western visitors for the first time just three years ago. About the size of Switzerland, Bhutan is caught between the opposing spheres of influence of Communist China and India. According to Jay Evans '49, the father of expedition member Eric Evans, the Bhutanese government is building military roads in the same area that the expedition proposes to explore, and is "very nervous about Americans going through and taking pictures. It's a political situation."

The trip was conceived by Walker after a post-graduation tour of military duty in Southeast Asia. "It was something of a dream in the back of his mind," says the elder Evans, "to kayak down a river valley in a non-industrialized, non-Western civilization, and absorb information as best he could by going to these little villages and intermingling with the people .... He wanted to achieve a broader understanding of these people's ideas."

The other expedition, this one in the Peruvian Andes, was mounted by the Dartmouth Mountaineering Club. In July expedition members Chris Walker '73, Peter Gilbert '76, Mike Paine '72, Ginger Cox '77, Rob Gilbert '78, Mark Blatter '78, and Peter Kelemen '7B climbed five peaks of up to 20,500 feet, including the north ridge of Alpamayo, described by Peter Gilbert as "one of the most magnificent mountains in the world."

The climbs were made in Peru's Huascarán National Park, 200 miles north of Lima. "One of the reasons we wanted to go there," says Chris Walker, who returned to Hanover in early August, "is that very little is known about it."

The expedition did not have any set goals, and the climbers could attempt whatever peaks they wanted to try. The base camp was established in Quebrada Alpamayo, a valley in the park farthest from where other climbers were concentrated. When not climbing, Walker says, the expedition members talked about sleep, shared food fantasies and climbing stories, and read books from the expedition library of 25 volumes. Both Rob Gilbert and Blatter turned 20 during the trip.

Each peak necessitated, at most, three days to reach the summit. Only two or three members of the expedition would climb a peak at one time. The principal dangers to the climbers came from the possibility of avalanches and from snow cornices along ridges. "Non-climbers tend to glorify the dangers of climbing," says Walker, who in 1973 was a member of a Mountaineering Club expedition to Mt. Hunter in Alaska. If a climber, he says, is walking along a ridge and he thinks there might be a cornice ahead, he must have the discipline to avoid it. "There's a certain amount to be learned ... to know when to be paranoid. That's what we call experience."

Our dear friend and colleague Joan Lovejoy Hier died suddenly July 27. She had been editor of class notes and obituaries since 1971.

Joan packed an impressive amount of journalism into her lifetime of 50 years, and she taught us — gracefully — more than we will probably ever realize about putting together a magazine. More than that, she was the "girl friend" to some 70 class secretaries spanning the ages of 22 to 92. The love letters between all those men and this wonderfully warm woman were something to behold. It will take us all a very long time to recover.

Joan's obituary appears on page 58.

When the Reverend Asa Dodge Smith,Dartmouth's seventh president, retiredbecause of ill health in February of 1877,the students accumulated $200 to buy hima desk as a parting gift. The desk remainedin the family until 1973, when Asa DodgeSmith's descendants donated it to theCollege.Recently taken out of storage, the desktoday is available for public inspection in aroom in the upper southwest wing of BakerLibrary. It is something to pause over.Closed, it appears as a mildly ornate pieceof Victoriana. Unlatched, it spread-eaglesinto a creation of monstrous proportions,the green, felt-topped writing surface beingdwarfed by a labyrinth of over 100pigeonholes, drawers, and shelves.At present, the Library room is baresave for the Smith desk in a corner and oneother piece of furniture, equally droll: anelegantly carved chair with a large, circular hole cut into the seat.

When the Reverend Asa Dodge Smith,Dartmouth's seventh president, retiredbecause of ill health in February of 1877,the students accumulated $200 to buy hima desk as a parting gift. The desk remainedin the family until 1973, when Asa DodgeSmith's descendants donated it to theCollege.Recently taken out of storage, the desktoday is available for public inspection in aroom in the upper southwest wing of BakerLibrary. It is something to pause over.Closed, it appears as a mildly ornate pieceof Victoriana. Unlatched, it spread-eaglesinto a creation of monstrous proportions,the green, felt-topped writing surface beingdwarfed by a labyrinth of over 100pigeonholes, drawers, and shelves.At present, the Library room is baresave for the Smith desk in a corner and oneother piece of furniture, equally droll: anelegantly carved chair with a large, circular hole cut into the seat.